Chapter 18 The change in attitude.

Tewell felt he might have guessed the reason for their change in attitude — his bonding with the students in class had become widespread knowledge.

Just a day was all it took for castle gossip to reach everyone's ears. Hogwarts truly lived up to its reputation.

"It's just some teaching techniques," Tewell shrugged. "Seems the students don't mind."

"The students not only don't mind," Professor Flitwick pretended to be mysterious, winking, "I was worried you'd be nervous on your first day."

"They're just a bunch of third-years, easy to please," Tewell said with an air of authority, as if it were Professor Flitwick speaking. Smiling all the way, Tewell felt his face stiffening. He had only met them at last night's dinner, and today was the first day of school, yet it seemed like every student knew him as the new professor.

But as soon as he entered the Great Hall, Tewell understood what Professor Flitwick meant. When the students saw him, someone let out a scream.

"Professor Fawley, can't you consider hanging and flogging me as a fourth-year too!"

Well, that came from a rugged-looking boy. The Great Hall erupted in laughter, but the students' eyes were filled with anticipation, eagerly watching Tewell."Professor, please teach us fighting techniques!"

"Please tie me up tightly, I don't mind!"

As for Professor Quirrell at the faculty table, he wished he didn't have to teach at all, spending all day figuring out how to deal with the three-headed dog.

Fawley had only taught one class, so it wasn't as if he had made the students that excited. It's just that everything is relative; the same was the first class, and Quirrell's course was exceptionally boring.

The classroom was filled with a strong smell of garlic, giving the students headaches.

Not to mention the content of the course, where he just stuck to the script.

Compared to Professor Binns, who taught Magical History, he showed a bit more emotion.

Whenever it came to spellcasting, he would ask students to demonstrate, although he talked a lot, he never showed them himself, leaving the students to figure it out on their own.

But Fawley was different. Just that golden membrane was enough to earn praise from the Weasley twins for ages.

And Ravenclaw's Davis almost became Fawley's fanatic fan, praising his abilities to the skies. In the eyes of the young wizards, from appearance to ability, Fawley was simply superior to Professor Quirrell!

Fawley raised his hand, and the Great Hall immediately quieted down. Looking at the students, especially the older ones, with anticipation in their eyes, he waved his hand and pointed to Quirrell sitting at the faculty table.

"Professor Quirrell is responsible for courses for fourth years and above. Trust me, his abilities are more than enough to be your Defense Against the Dark Arts professor; he just hasn't shown it yet."

Quirrell wanted to hide his abilities, and Fawley didn't mind digging a little pit for him. Now they were colleagues in every sense of the word, so why not?

This move had a significant effect. Quirrell's previously smiling face froze, his mouth twitched slightly, not knowing what expression to put on to respond to the students' questioning gaze.

The little commotion in the Great Hall dissipated, but the students were still discussing the charming Professor Fawley.

"We still have a few days until Professor Fawley's class," Ron said, with a chicken leg in his left hand and a fruit tart in his right, his mouth never idle. "So you don't need to be so eager."

"I'm not eager!" Hermione, who was reading while eating dinner, lifted her head, furrowing her brow displeased. "Professor Fawley's first class is to test our abilities. If you don't even know a single spell, doesn't that mean we've lost at first glance?!"

Neville put down the chicken leg in his hand, looking hopeless. "That's it, I might not even be able to cast a complete spell after studying for a year."

Harry listened silently to their discussion, feeling his heart tightening. During today's class, he was pleasantly surprised to find that his magical learning wasn't inferior to his classmates', except for Hermione, of course.

Just hearing that the first Defense Against the Dark Arts class would involve a fight with a professor made George excited. Now sitting at the Gryffindor table, whenever Professor Fawley was mentioned, he would appear.

"Don't worry, no matter how much you've learned, you'll still be knocked down by just one spell from Professor Fawley," George said confidently.

"Maybe the professor can scare them off with just a wand wave?" Fred chimed in with a mischievous grin.

"But I heard you guys only took one spell from the professor, and then you were all hanging upside down," Ron blinked innocently, completely unaware of his accurate hit.

The twins exchanged a silent look.

"I think developing a kind of spider candy to turn people into spiders would be fun."

"Or we could fill the common room with spiders, so the Gryffindors could practice dodging in advance."

"Dodging? Are you talking about combat techniques?" Hermione's curiosity was piqued. "Can you tell us more about it?"

She was more interested in Professor Fawley's class content. As a diligent student, she always liked to preview before class. But from what she heard, it seemed that Professor Flitwick's class content didn't follow the textbook at all. And in her impression, there were rarely books containing such content.

"Don't worry, you'll learn it. We have a whole year!" George shook his head triumphantly.

At present, only their batch of students had taken Professor Fawley's class, and the specific content of the course was unanimously kept confidential. These were secret techniques that could enhance their strength! Although when everyone had taken Defense Against the Dark Arts, they would know these contents. But by then, they would already be bonded by the experience of hanging from the ceiling together, so knowing wouldn't matter.

Hermione rolled her eyes in dissatisfaction, no longer bothering with the sarcastic Weasley twins. But after Ron had eaten and drunk his fill, he suddenly said, "Aren't you worried that Professor Fawley might use Dark Magic?"

"Impossible, how could a professor use Dark Magic on students?!" Hermione retorted immediately.

"But the professor is a standard Death Eater, so it's normal for him to know Dark Magic, right?" Ron frowned.

In his mind, knowing Dark Magic equated to being a Dark Wizard, and a Death Eater who taught Dark Magic was the headquarters of Dark Wizards.

George, on the other hand, became discontented. He gave Ron a heavy pat on the shoulder.

"My dear brother, knowing Dark Magic doesn't mean using it. I bet Dumbledore knows plenty of Dark Magic too."

"Even if he's a Dark Wizard, it doesn't matter," Fred said with a fanatical look, "as long as he doesn't use it on us."

Ron gave his two brothers a disdainful glance.

"You guys were betting this morning on how long it would take for Professor Fawley to end up in Azkaban..."